Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Monday 9 July 2007

Best Shot Monday

I have recently taken over my husband's Nikon ex-work camera. Inspired by all the fantastic photography I have been seeing across the 'Picture This' group, I wanted a camera with better resolution and more manual features. My old Sony Cybershot had served me well for a number of years but I wanted to extend my skills.

Now something else you need to, or may already, know. My husband is a multi-media designer, graphic artist and photographer. As a result, he takes NO family photos. When Baby Angel and I were recently watching one of the myriad DVDs of her babydays, Small Boy asked excitedly, "Where are MY baby videos dad?" There was an uncomfortable silence as we all turned to look at Himself. Apparently there aren't any.

With this in mind, I took the 'new' camera along to Small Boy's football match on Saturday.

"It's the wrong camera for this," Himself pointed out," digital cameras are not very good for action shots and the lens isn't big enough. You need something more like the one I'm using now."

I grit my teeth. "Well, why don't YOU take some photos then????" No reply.

Doggedly I click away. I'm not sure if anything's happening. Lights are flashing and there are beeping noises and something called AF keeps flicking on and off. The kids are miles away in the middle of the oval. I run out of memory. I need to manually delete 30 files to make more space.
"You're wasting your time...it's the wrong camera," he intones again.

In a bloody minded, stubborn funk I ignore him and click on. "Get in closer," he instructs, "Use a different setting."
"Leave me alone," I snap back," who is taking these anyway???!!!!!"

Stand-off.

Back at the ranch I download 50 files and delete about 40 which are so out of focus they look like the phone book with my glasses off. However!!!!!!! I did manage to capture these.


Our lad is the red head on the left. At this point the ball was nowhere near them so they were playing chasey around each other. Ornithologists note the flock of grey and pink galahs in the back ground. Classic Australian bird!


Ah hah! Some movement, the ball is close by! (so...no good for action pictures eh smarty dad???)


He has the ball! But wait, what on earth is that hanging out of his mouth????? Ah, that would be his mouthguard. Hmmm, looks like that'll be a waste of space in a collision!!! Although it may do the collidee some damage.



Yes, it looks like we really need to do something about that mouthguard!!



Okay, so HE thinks its funny. here he is jamming it in again one more time!!!



And here we have the ubiquitious 'team line up and high five'. This is where they walk down the line high fiving the oppostition and saying "good game, good game" over and over until they run out of articulation juice and all you can hear is "Goo gay, goo gay."

But after all this IS Best Shot Monday and although I thought the action shot with football and mouthguard was ok.....


.....this is my choice. You can tell he's not used to being the center of attention. That's a position usually reserved for the mouthguard, which is now in his hand.
For more Best Shot Monday, head over to Picture This!!



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh, so great!
and you are totally inspiring me to get out the video camera too. I'm HORRIBLE about it. And i think i'm really going to regret it if i don't change soon. Thank you!

kim said...

Great job on ALL the photos. I use my Nikon with the "regular" lens for all my photos, action or not. Of course, I don't have much choice, since it's the biggest lens I've got, but I get some good shots with it. Sometimes it's not just about the quality, but quantity. I take so many pics, I'm bound to get a good one. Way to go!

Bunny said...

I think these look great and your husband can get over himself! Good photographs are made by the photographer looking through the lens, not the one barking in the background. You did great!

Anonymous said...

These are all great shots...so you showed Himself, didn't you? :)

Your son is so cute, however, I'm sure he'd prefer to hear handsome. The mouthguard ordeal is too funny.

Christina said...

I enjoyed your commentary just as much as the pictures! This was GREAT. and you did get some awesome action shots - so there, Dad!

jenny said...

Those were all fun, husband's approval not necessary.

Keep snapping shots and he'll get used to being the center of attention. ;-)

Maggie said...

Those are so great!! I totally agree with your method - take enough shots and there are bound to be a few great ones in the mix!

Anonymous said...

Awesome!!! You go girl! Take over that camera and you show 'em how it's done!! Welcome to BSM. Glad to have you join us!

tracey clark said...

Fab action shots! Good work.

Arizaphale said...

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Your photos are all so inspiring, its great fun looking at them all. I will continue to persevere with the Nikon...I may even read the manual!!! And Himself was grudgingly pleased with my results so all is forgiven :-D

Never That Easy said...

That's great - how funny is he with the mouthguard? I don't think that's exactly the job it was meant to do...

And kudos for proving that professionals don't know everything!

Double kudos for guessing on my site: a Fluffernutter is indeed a peanut butter and Fluff (a light, sticky marshmallow creme) layered sandwich. It's outrageously good.

I wrote about it here, since there was so much confusion:

http://neverthateasy.blogspot.com/2007/07/gasp.html

Stacy said...

Great job on the photos...and the look on that last one...priceless! It seems I have heard that usually the photographers family has few pictures of them. Well, I think you are doing a fantastic job at documenting your children's youth. :) We also don't have a video camera, so the still shots are all they are getting at this point!